Starting from scans of vintage tintypes, Leslie Sheryll uses witty and creative photo-assemblages to revisit the Victorian Era in America, its fascinations and its hang-ups, its science and superstitions, with particular reference to attitudes about women and sexuality, many of which continue to impact women today. Sheryll’s characters are 19th-century, buttoned-up but rouge-cheeked, women, amended and surrounded by flowers, each telling a gently feminist tale. Her visual vocabulary echoes the Victorians’ use of botany and the study and exchange of flowers to “discuss” forbidden topics and convey secret messages. The finished images are multi-layered both in graphic construction and in explicit and implicit meaning, revealing a not-so-secret message about sex, communication, and the artist’s complex attitudes about her own role as a woman.
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